Final Score: Pirates 5 Yankees 4 in 11 innings.
Why The Pirates Won: The Pirates won despite themselves. Until the walk-off hit by Tommy Pham, the Pirates had gone 0 for 20. The bullpen blew a three-run lead in the top of the 9th. Jared Triolo would have replaced Isiah Kiner-Falefa if he had not developed back spasms. IKF went on to go 1 for 3 with a big RBI and a run scored. Once IKF was inserted into the starting lineup, a goofy lineup became less goofy. Andrew Heaney probably pitched the best game he will pitch all year. Against this potent Yankee offense, he gave up just 1 run on 5 hits. He went 7 innings, striking out 10 and walking one. He finished strong, giving up one hit in his last 3 innings of work. The bullpen redeemed itself by holding the Yankees scoreless for the two extra innings. The Pirates came up with a shocking win. Not bad considering Derek Shelton only wants them to be competitive.
Key Moments Of The Game: The Pirates managed to score 3 of their 4 runs after 2 were out. Bryan Reynolds had a big 2-out double in the bottom of the 3rd to drive in 2 runs. In the bottom of the 4th, the Red Sox reject got a one-out triple. Tommy Pham hit a sacrifice fly to make the score 3-1. Adam Frazier singled. Isiah (Thank God For Back Spasms) Kiner-Falefa hit a double to drive Frazier in to make the score 4-1. The Pirates held the lead until the 9th. Ryan Borucki did not get his first major league save, giving up 3 runs in the top of the 9th. Tommy (I Am Batting .100 Now) Pham got the walk-off hit. Miraculously, the Pirates salvaged the final game of the series. They improved their record to 3-7, which is 2 games better than I thought it would be.
Next Game: Tonight, Cardinals in Pittsburgh. The Pirates are going with the Carmen Mlodzinski game again. Maybe it will work out. Frankly, it does not make any sense. This guy was solid in the bullpen. As predicted, Holderman went on the IL. Hopefully, it will be for 500 days. This bullpen obviously needs help. Management refuses to give them any. Will Thomas Harrington ever pitch again? He is not scheduled, at least for this series. Please tell me who makes these decisions. I still can’t believe they won yesterday. Can’t wait to see who gets “rested” today. Will Cutch be capable of playing 2 games in a row with that old decrepit body of his? These are the questions Derek (The Shadow) Shelton ponders while we sleep at night.
The Goofy Game of Golf/Life Searching for the Answer 